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The construction industry collects mounds of data. But the contractors that dive deep into and analyze that data to make intelligent decisions about their projects and overall business strategy reap the greatest rewards. As business technologies grow across all industries and younger, more data-informed professionals enter the construction workspace, contractors are diving deeper into their data by deploying business intelligence solutions in construction that fuel real-time analytics.

Cloud-based, integrated construction software and mobile applications that allows data to be accessed and updated in real time are the technology tools helping construction business intelligence succeed in an industry where change is a constant. The aforementioned technologies allow visibility into all aspects of a project from any device, creating collaborative working environments for all construction professionals, whether they work in the field or the back office. Working with current data in real time lets contractors meet modern business needs. But the ability to analyze that data and quickly make smart decisions as part of the process is what is giving modern contractors a significant competitive edge.

Business Intelligence (BI) is a catchall phrase referring to the software applications that a company can use to turn its raw data (largely produced through construction management and project management software) into analytics, which can be used to identify potential areas for cost reductions, eliminate inefficiencies, highlight new opportunities, and help make better decisions.

The contractors for a long have been using a simple spreadsheet system of maintaining and analyzing humongous volumes of data at various levels. The problem with this is its time-consuming, error-prone and no transparency in the data processing.

Today, applications, infrastructure, tools and best practices that enable analysis of data are bringing tremendous benefits to contractors. From in-depth reports to dashboards, creative charts, graphs and even geographical mapping of data, BI software puts contractors in the driver's seat and takes away the headache of trying to manually make sense of the mountains of construction data.

Early construction industry adopters of data analytics and business intelligence software have reaped huge benefits. Among them: identifying areas where increased project efficiencies and productivity can be achieved; the ability to more accurately bid and scale for future projects; spotting consistent problems on projects and developing strategies to solve them; effectively factoring industry trends like building patterns, economic conditions and material costs into project planning; and streamlining labour and workflows to maximize overhead costs.

Business Intelligence helps in business speed, as good software provides the facts quickly to make important decisions. Modern construction software and intelligence allows all data held to be integrated and analyzed together giving true and accurate insights into the bigger picture facilitating better decision making and evaluation quickly.

Similar to the speed that integrated data provides, modern business intelligence also provides the scope of information required to make the most informed decisions rather than going mostly on gut instinct, it has been largely superseded by fact-based decision making centered on up to the minute, bespoke data that all but removes the element of guesswork. This effectively removes risk, in the majority, of the business decisions being made across the entire process and project.

Real time business intelligence gives an intricate breakdown of all aspects of a project from completed portions through progress along the track. This allows a business to assess performance and delivery, in all areas, and the most effective software provides early warning for cost over runs plus the ability to reforecast, to get back on track.

The most construction software and intelligence have the facility to add on bespoke reporting modules to easily communicate and display this data to maximum effect and in the most effective manner to be disseminated to the correct decision makers. Not only is this extremely efficient, it has the knock-on effect of allowing those decision makers to accurately respond to the data provided.

BI software allows companies to take a step back and look at their overall performance. This holistic view can help when considering the direction of the business or when simply deciding on whether a proposed project is the right fit. Companies can strategize to target bids that are more profitable and look at project histories to get a sense of what job types they should avoid. Analytic reports can lead to smarter operations overall.

BI also gives user the ability to establish benchmark metrics against which actual performance can be compared. That way, contractor can see if he actually moved the needle in the right direction during the past month, quarter and year; he can also look ahead to forecast what will happen in the future.

One of the most common BI benchmarking tools employed by construction companies is the use of key performance indicators (KPIs), which measure whether the changes a business implements are actually producing positive results. Regularly monitoring KPIs can help a company deliver its projects to clients efficiently and on time, within budget, without defects and safely, and often leads to reductions in project costs and shorter timelines.

All in all, businesses that have adopted modern technology and software solutions are able to better protect themselves from a range of challenges that can come up at any stage of a project. Business intelligence solutions allow for immediate and early notice about businesses and projects to make the right decisions. To be competitive in such a constantly evolving industry, intelligence software solutions are now not only recommended, but a crucial and mandatory part of any construction business.